The horse conch is the Florida state shell. It is one of the largest shells to be found around the coastline and is the largest snail in North America. The horse conch is one of the spindle shells – family Fasciolariidae. They are thick and elongated. It looks like someone stretched the shell from both ends. It can grow to be nearly 2 feet in length!
Huge empty horse conch found in the backwaters of the Indian River
One day while exploring exposed mud flats at Three Sisters I saw this clump in the sand. It turned out to be a living horse conch, about a foot or more long. The shell was covered with barnacles and oysters.
A post, with pictures, about the Florida Fighting Conch seashell.
One of my favorite shells to see up close is the Fighting Conch, or the Florida Fighting Conch (Strombus alatus) as it’s known. It is in the family Strombidae.
The Fighting Conch can be found on all Florida shorelines, but they prefer sandy, shallow water where wave action is minimal. That’s exactly the type of place I discovered this one.
Before I came across this living mollusk, I had collected an empty fighting conch shell while visiting Sanibel Island. On the Gulf coast, this shell is more common than where I am on the East coast.
So what is a conch shell? (Pronounced “konk”) By definition it is a large, spiral-shaped seashell. It is big, but thicker and heavier than other gastropods, like the whelks. The conch is the living creature inside which is sometimes harvested to eat. Conch is on the menu in many tropical based restaurants, and the meat can be from any large gastropod shell.
I’ve also come across a broken and worn Fighting Conch shell with a hermit crab inside. This happened while exploring another similar type of island.
Broken Fighting Conch Shell with Hermit Crab Inside
Recently, I was lucky enough to come across this living Fighting Conch while walking the beach of an island in the Indian River. I didn’t think to measure it, but I’d estimate it’s length to be around 4 inches, and they don’t get much bigger, according to my seashell reference book.
The Beautiful Fighting Conch – this one is alive.
The chunky, wide-bodied shell, with a more compact spire, is a giveaway as to the name of this one. It is known to “fight” or jump at other shells that could be a danger to it, hence the “fighting” name.
Look at the beautiful colors on the shell! From the dark purple with orange edges underneath at the aperture, to the light purple on top (it’s spire), even though this one has some green algae and a few barnacles, it was a lovely sight to behold. I couldn’t help but wonder how beautiful it would have been all cleaned up.
Living Florida Fighting Conch – view of the mollusk inside
I saw this shell up on the sand at an island out on the Indian River. I picked it up hoping it was empty so I could take it home, but found a living conch inside. A fun surprise (at least it wasn’t a hermit crab!)
I took it to the boat to show my son – how often do you find something so awesome? I got my iPhone to take these pictures, and then left it in the shallow water which is it’s home.
My video of this living conch shell. Somehow it ended up in Slow-motion (I am not tech savvy), which shows the sea water slowly coming in around the shell.
If you are ever tempted to try “conch” when out to eat at a Florida restaurant, this is the type of thing you are eating. The living shells are collected and the animal is pulled out and cooked.
I’ve found other living mollusks while out boating. This big horse conch was pretty cool, and even a little pear whelk with the mollusk inside.
The Pink conch (or Queen conch) is a threatened species due to over-harvesting. For this same reason I no longer buy seashells from gift shops or shell shops. When I am walking the beach, or visiting these islands out on the river, I always only collect empty seashells.
While out on the boat just the other day we were fishing the backwaters north of Mosquito Lagoon. It was low tide and my son wanted to fish in Oyster Bay because the oyster mounds would be easy to see and navigate.
As we entered the bay area a large area of very shallow water allowed us to see the sand through the clear, running water. We all noticed, what looked like, a large shell just beneath the surface. I know that the horse conch can grow to be around 2 feet long, and certain other whelks can also be quite large. So we trolled over to the edge of the sandy island and hopped into the water to investigate.
The elongated shape of the shell told me it was a horse conch, and with just a little of the orange part (the mollusk’s body) showing, I knew I had found a living horse conch! My son held the heavy shell for a moment so I could get this photo and we put it right back down onto the sand. I couldn’t measure it, but I am guessing it was around 14 inches long.
Here you can see the operculum (round hard disk) which closes the mollusk in, and his bright orange body. It’s such an amazing creature! They like sand, and this area is nothing but sand, so I’m sure he’s very happy traversing the inland waterways.
Live Horse Conch
It’s not unusual to find little crown shells, lightning whelks and other pretty shells “walking” around on these sand bars. They are never living mollusks, only empty shells taken over by the hermit crabs. So, finding this big living mollusk was an exciting experience for me.
That find alone made my day, but later on we found another living horse conch on the same type of sand bar! It was about the same size as the first, and was up out of the water and encrusted with barnacles. I didn’t touch the second one, or take a picture, but I could see his orange body down in the mud. (I am always afraid I will drop my cell phone while walking through the squishy muddy, and sometimes slippery, bottom.) Plus, I already had my photos.
I have a horse conch seashell which I found empty on one of these types of islands. Perhaps empty horse conchs are too large for hermit crabs to occupy. (But they DO occupy every other type of gastropod out there!)
According to my seashell reference book, Florida’s Living Beaches, the Florida horse conch is “relatively uncommon” along the east coast. I’ve never seen one along the shore or at the beach, and I’ve only found 3 in my travels in the backwaters. They are however, “relatively common” on the southern west coast of Florida, where I imagine beautiful large and juvenile empty shells wash up on the beach. Over here where I live, it takes a bit more searching to find such a wonder.
Where the Horse Conch Lives
We left him on his sandy island, awaiting the return of the tide, and trolled off to try and catch some fish.
